One of the biggest challenges when working under time constraints is allowing yourself to take a step back and regain perspective. That’s exactly what Ryan Williams and Emmerson Maclean had to do to create something they were proud of.
As finalists in the Video category for Cairns Hatchlings 2025, the pair infused hope into a category that’s often heavy by listening to the stories of The Mission Australia’s Douglas House staff and residents.
Entries for Cairns Hatchlings, presented by Yahoo, are open now!
Williams and Maclean’s campaign brief was to raise awareness for The Mission Australia’s Douglas House during Homelessness Week. The Cairns facility supports residents developing the skills needed to move from homelessness into independent housing.
“Once we got our brief, we were given some time to interview staff and residents. We didn’t have a concept at that stage. It was a real “shoot first, ask questions later” type scenario,” Williams said.
Stories of adversity and struggle followed. But throughout everything, the residents said there was an undertone. Every day, they meet whatever they are facing with patience and compassion.
“It sounds cheesy, but there was hope. It made us hopeful as a by-product. Douglas House is a special place because of the people who live and work there. We got thinking, what if these walls could talk? Like the house was haunted by… hope? That was the breakthrough. We gave the house a voice to embody the motivation and emotions exuded by the people who work there,” Williams added.
That experience of talking with staff and residents made all the difference. Absorbing the stories they heard, they could connect with them and channel that connection authentically into a piece of work that resonates, one filled with care and compassion.
“Coming away from that experience, we were in awe and struck emotionally by our time there and knew we had to capture that experience in our work, which we knew would be easier said than done. Going back through our footage and listening to the stories again, we devised the plan that we needed a single character to encompass all the good that Douglas House represents. And there it was, what if Douglas House could talk and tell the story, what if these walls could talk,” Maclean said.
From there, they had to script, record, edit and film additional content to bring this idea to life. The duo focused on a slow, emotional pace and tone that built as the video went on to drive home the overwhelming and unwavering support and care this service offers.
But when they started bringing their ideas to life, the time constraints distracted them. It can feel like every minute counts, and each one needs to be filled with productive movement towards a final product. That was when they realised that sometimes, stepping back is the best thing you can do.
“Working within the time constraint adds a level of pressure we couldn’t anticipate. Balancing the creative thought and ideation process with the nagging voice in the back of your head telling you, you only have so much time, creates noise and doubt that’s incredibly hard to work through. Taking that incredibly hard step to walk away from the project for a moment to decompress took us a long time, but was ultimately worth it,” Maclean said.
“After a while thinking about the problem, my brain builds up lactic acid, but for thinking. It performs worse. We spent a good chunk of the first and second days attacking the problem. Feeling the pressure when the answers didn’t come. Stepping away wasn’t what I wanted to do, but I had to do it. I needed to get my perspective back. So my solution was to get outdoors and walk to Subway,” Williams said.
That challenge turned out to be a huge learning lesson for both of them, instilling them with skills they could take to other projects. Knowing that they were able to produce great work in a short time period gave them confidence and validated their ability to create meaningful work under time pressure.
“This might just be me, but as a creative, I am quite happy to spend more time on something. Part of me is afraid that I can’t produce anything worthwhile in such a short turnaround. But we did it. It’s possible. It was messy as hell. But the pressure forced us to produce something that we couldn’t have done in our normal routines. The creative process is messy, and the pressure made us embrace that,” Williams said.
“On the surface, this may not seem like a skill, but as a creative person, trusting your ideas and running with them can be hard. Working under pressure really challenged us to trust our ideas and be confident in them quickly. So the skill to just be confident in our first few ideas and to start building them was a massive takeaway,” Maclean added.
“I’m proud of the fact that our submission was out of the ordinary. We chose quite a bold and strange concept for a video project, especially a time-constrained one, and were able to execute it within 48 hours. The challenge of trying to convey the emotion and passion of the work at Douglas House was already a hard task, and the fact that we chose to be bold in our approach, regardless of the outcome, I will always be proud of that,” Maclean said.
“I’m proud that we got somewhere in the 2 day time frame. It was great practice for real pitching and creative work. I’m proud that we did it, and are going to be better next time (rematch anyone?),” Williams said.
Williams urged other creatives to remember that their skills as a creative are different to everyone else’s. What each creative brings to the table is unique, and they should take advantage of it if they can.
For Maclean, the exposure to veterans and higher-ups in the industry was a massive opportunity for her career. Having the opportunity to get comfortable pitching to a room of Guren regulars and chatting to them afterwards about what to improve and what other opportunities are out there was something that will stick with her in her career moving forward.
“To other young creatives, I’d say it’s a phenomenal experience, learning to work as a duo in a competition environment will quickly get comfortable with your own skills and learn to lean on the skills of your team to push yourself to the limit. On top of that, seeing what the other creative people put together at the same time is a fantastic learning experience,” Maclean said.
“Outside of the work stuff, there are fantastic networking opportunities in Cairns. Going through something like Hatchlings has made me a bunch of like-minded real-world friends. My LinkedIn is full of people further along this career path. Plus, Cairns Central Subway is really convenient if you need to defrag your brain,” Williams added.
Entries for Cairns Hatchlings, presented by Yahoo, are open now!
